The United States will invest twenty million dollars in the Caribbean Climate Investment Program, fifteen million more into the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and seek multilateral reform at the World Bank.
These were just a few of the initiatives US Vice President, Kamala Harris announced as she addressed CARICOM heads at the US-Caribbean Leaders Meeting in the Bahamas on Thursday.
Vice President Harris indicated she met with the new president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga and informed him the US will lead a diplomatic campaign on multilateral development bank reform.
She said “We seek more availability of low-cost concessional financing to nations in the Caribbean. More broadly, new debt must include disaster clauses to allow a pause on debt payments immediately following a natural disaster. And, three, we want the bank to better mobilize the private sector in support of these goals. Implementation of these reforms will have a major impact on countries in the Caribbean, and we aim to achieve these key reforms by the G20 meeting this fall.”